Labeled traffic cards make easier rides for seniors without smartphones
A passenger scans the venue code at a bus station.
Seniors without a smart phone can now use ID-bonded and labeled traffic cards to take public transport in Shanghai.
As a key coronavirus prevention and control measure, citizens are required to scan a code with several common mobile apps before taking public transport in the city, such as the Metro, buses and taxis.
The measure has proved effective to trace the source and whereabouts of new COVID-19 infections after the city emerged from its two-month-plus lockdown. But it is also a challenge for some of the elderly, visually impaired and other special groups who cannot use a smartphone, according to the Shanghai Transport Commission.
Netizens have appealed to the authority to offer easier access for the elderly after a video about a senior man who had to get off a bus after failing to scan the venue code went viral on social media in early June.
The new free service launched over the weekend allows seniors and others in need to bond their ID with a traffic card at 23 traffic cards service centers, 200 bus terminus and a dozen convenient stores at local Metro stations. (A full list is published on "Shanghaifabu" Wechat account).
Employees will stick a film of a label on the ID-bonded traffic card, so that bus drivers and security staff at Metro stations will allow them to access without scanning the venue code.
However, these passengers still have to bring their paper-version health code for staff to check the validity period of their nucleic acid test report, the Shanghai Public Traffic Card Company said.
A 72-hour negative PCR report is required for admission to almost all public venues and public transportation, along with the venue code scanning and temperature checks.
Citizens can also take public transport and enter public areas with a 24-hour PCR test certificate, even if the result has yet to come out.
"The ID and traveling information will be recorded through the ID-bonded traffic cards for COVID-19 prevention and control," the company explained.
"We promise the information will be used for epidemiological investigation and other pandemic prevention works only," the company said, adding the privacy of the passengers will be protected.
A label will be stuck on the ID-bonded traffic card.
